Senate Dems Know How to De-ICE

After a couple of false starts, Senate Democrats seem to have figured out how to work a potential government shutdown. House Dems should go along.

Last fall Democrats forced a 43-day partial shutdown. They did so over the price of health care. While they didn’t get the extension of Obamacare tax subsidies that they wanted, they succeeded in putting the issue front and center and assigning blame for massive premium increases where it belongs — with the GOP. But I also thought Senate moderates were right to finally join the Republicans in ending the stalemate. The point had been amply made and the suffering — from food shortages for the poorest to paychecks for Federal workers — had gone on long enough.

On this latest showdown I think the Democrats in the Senate have been pitch perfect. For one thing they didn’t actually force any shutdown at all. They allowed five spending bills to go through and negotiated a two week delay on the one funding the Department of Homeland Security. And their demands for final passage of that bill are reasonable and supported by voters.

Democrats want ICE agents to wear body cameras (that’s already been agreed to), not masks, get a warrant before they bust down your door and stop the roving raids.

If Republicans balk at any of those (and they are balking at making agents take off their masks and getting proper warrants from judges), they’ll tie themselves even more closely to the ugly mess Trump has created in Minneapolis. If there’s any doubt that they will pay for this at the polls, their attention may be directed to the Texas state Senate seat won last Saturday by a Democrat. By 14 points. In a district Trump won by 17 points just over a year ago.

Chuck Schumer seems to have found the sweet spot. He didn’t go too far for the general voting public by demanding that ICE be disbanded, but instead he outlined reasonable measures that will have broad support among swing voters.

House Democrats have decided not to support Schumer’s deal — or at least not to provide the votes needed to pass the bill. So, now Speaker Mike Johnson needs to find all the votes in his own caucus, which only empowers his hard-right.

I don’t know what those House Dems are thinking. They’re not going to get a better deal than the one Schumer has negotiated. They should vote for the bill and move on to a two week period of negotiation. If they can’t get a good enough deal then, they’ll have another chance to force a partial shutdown at that point.

The Democrats have seized the high road on this issue. Let’s not squander it on something that deteriorates into the equivalent of “defund the police.”